Tuppence Middleton

Tuppence Middleton (born 21 February 1987) is an English actress. She was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards 2010 for Most Promising Newcomer.
She has appeared in feature films such as Tormented (2009), Chatroom (2010), Cleanskin (2012), Trance (2013), The Lady Vanishes (2013), The Imitation Game (2014) and Jupiter Ascending (2015), as well as in television series such as Bones (2008), New Tricks (2010), Friday Night Dinner (2011), Sinbad (2012), Spies of Warsaw (2013), Black Mirror (2013), Sense8 (2015).
She starred in two British period dramas screened around the same time, Dickensian (2015–16), playing Miss Havisham, and War & Peace (2016), in which she played Russian princess and villain Hélène Kuragina.

Tuppence Middleton was born on 21 February 1987 in Bristol, England, to Nigel and Tina Middleton. She was named "Tuppence" after the childhood nickname her grandmother gave to her mother. She was raised in Clevedon, Somerset, with younger brother Josh and older sister Angel.

From an early age Tuppence was involved in school plays including Guys and Dolls at Bristol Grammar School, in which she played the lead role. She attended the performing arts school Stagecoach in Portishead, Bristol. She appeared in local drama productions, including a pantomime at Clevedon's Princes Hall with her sister.

Tuppence attended Bristol Grammar School. She subsequently studied acting at the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, London, earning an honours degree in acting.

Middleton gained a following for her appearance in the 2009 British horror/comedy Tormented. Her character, head girl Justine Fielding, dates one of the most popular boys in school, only to find that he and his friends were responsible for a classmate's death. She has also appeared in adverts for the chewing gum Extra and Sky TV.

In 2010 she was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards 2010 for Most Promising Newcomer and she starred in Samuel Abrahams's BAFTA-nominated short film "Connect". In 2011, she played the character Tanya Greene in the British sitcom Friday Night Dinner, and Sarah in Sirens. In 2012 she appeared in Cleanskin, a terrorist thriller. In March 2013 she made her professional theatre debut in The Living Room. She also played a minor role in the Danny Boyle film Trance. In 2015, she starred in the Netflix Original Series Sense8 as Riley Blue.

She starred in the 2016 BBC drama War & Peace, playing Russian aristocrat Princess Hélène Kuragin.

The series received critical acclaim and featured fellow young actress Lily James also known for her period dramas. The Daily Express said: "Rising star Tuppence Middleton takes on the role of the delightfully evil Helene Kuragina, who is one half of the incestuous duo. Audiences witnessed her brother getting a little too intimate with his sibling in the first episode before she turned her attentions to Pierre and dug her claws into him. She is a vile character who will use and abuse Pierre without giving him a second thought, to stop the beautiful Helena (Lily James) Pierre real love marrying him."

Andrew Davies, who adapted War and Peace, described Middleton's Hélène as "the naughtiest woman on TV at the moment".

She has in interviews described herself as shy. "I liked to be in my own company, so when I came home from school, I'd just go up to my room and hang out by myself. I wouldn't really have friends over or go to see friends much. I was very, very shy in public and school, and quite loud and brash at home. As I got older, I auditioned for drama school and shocked myself by getting in." She has also said she has been asked if she is related to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge: "Since Kate Middleton came around, some people think I'm related to her, but unfortunately, there's no connection."